I used the Suggestion Forum Example to build a Product Review but I am liking this example better. I think it is possible to build this example and then change the key in my forum to match. Yes? Anything I need to watch during the conversion?

Because the xtsug_status (Suggestion Forum example) custom thread fields is an Option Buttons, and the pfcat (Product Review Forum example) is a single select Listbox, I think it is OK to rename the key name.

For the other custom thread fields (Product Review Forum example has more than one custom thread fields), you can use Custom Moderator Tools to set the value as a "default" value. XThreads inserts a tools inside the Custom Moderation Tools to mass update it.

is it possible to replace the descriptions on the right with a static category section and then make the actual thread section on the left a bit wider?

something like what leefish did with the book review mod and having the genre section on the right. rather than having a genre, have a category section for the categories we imputed in the category custom thread fields.